Daily Devotions by Steve Holm (Page 157)
Daily Devotions: April 8, 2019
April 8, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 19:28-40 …“As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen…” vs. 37 The crowd of disciples that had accompanied Jesus from Galilee could not contain itself as they crested the Mount of Olives and the Holy City came into view. As they…
Daily Devotions: April 7, 2019
April 7, 2019 For full passage click: John 12:5-8 …“Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’” vss. 7-8 Judas’ suggestion wasn’t a bad one. The perfume was very expensive, there were many poor people in Jerusalem, and the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Sometimes it really…
Daily Devotions: April 6, 2019
April 6, 2019 For full passage click: John 12:1-3 …“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” vs. 3 Both Luke and John tell us that Mary and Martha are friends of Jesus and that they lived in the village of Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. Because they show up regularly in our gospel readings and preachers…
Daily Devotions: April 5, 2019
April 5, 2019 For full passage click: Philippians 3:10-14 …“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” vs. 12 Suffering and death were not obstacles for Paul. In fact, he saw them as the means by which he might identify totally with Christ Jesus, and then experience the power of resurrection. While those things lay in the…
Daily Devotions: April 4, 2019
April 4, 2019 For full passage click: Philippians 3: 4b-9 …“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.” vs. 7 Paul was a proud man! He loved his tribal roots and his religious heritage. He loved his knowledge and his blameless life. Some of us know what that feels like. We’re proud of our ethnic purity and the quality of our education. We hang our advanced degrees on the wall and love…
Daily Devotions: April 3, 2019
April 3, 2019 For full passage click: Psalm 126:4-6 …“Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.” vs. 6 There’s an old saying that packs a lot of truth into a few words: “What goes around, comes around.” It’s an affirmation of the cyclical nature of life on the journey and finds its roots in what we read in Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season…a time to…
Daily Devotions: April 2, 2019
April 2, 2019 For full passage click: Psalm 126:1-3 …“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” vs. 1 For the people of Israel, life with the Lord was like a roller coaster ride, and most of the time when they’d completed a terrifying section of the track, an even scarier portion loomed ahead. But not all the time! Occasionally there would be a time of prosperity and blessing, and they were stunned. They hadn’t…
Daily Devotions: April1, 2019
April 1, 2019 For full passage click: Isaiah 43:16-21 …“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” vs. 19 Pessimists abound in the mainline denominations. They point to declining worship numbers, pastoral shortages and closing congregations as signs that the end of Christianity is at hand. They’re caught up in nostalgia and yearn for a return to the…
Daily Devotions: March 31, 2019
March 31, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 15:18-32 …“But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.’” vs. 29 Sinners, wandering sons and daughters, people eating with pigs—all love Jesus’ story of the waiting, loving, ever-merciful father. They rightly understand it to be a…
Daily Devotions: March 30, 2019
March 30, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-19 …“But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!’” vs. 17 The parable of the Prodigal Son is perhaps one of Jesus’ most loved and often preached upon stories, probably because it touches on universal themes that most of us can identify with. We know all about rebellious children and leaving…
Daily Devotions: March 29, 2019
March 29, 2019 For full passage click: 2 Corinthians 5: 18-21 …“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” vs. 21 Most of us have grown to maturity thinking that Jesus of Nazareth was sinless, that he never once did any of the things that we do regularly—never a cross word, never an impure thought, never an act of rebellion. We believe this because…